Monday, Mar 19, 2007
Gender Sensitivity, Female Infanticide Become Focus on International Women's Day in India
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Gender sensitivity and female infanticide were some of the issues focussed on as India made its pledge to empower women on International Women's Day on Thursday.
In the national capital an exhibition of products made by women's self-help groups marked the occasion.
Addressing women entrepreneurs, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife, Gursharan Kaur lamented the preference for male child in conservative Indian society.
"People try to kill the girl child even before she is born; they get it tested whether it is girl or a boy and if it is girl they abort it. They don't need girl child. They don't even let the girl child breathe the air of outer world; they kill them in the womb. It is necessary to address this problem and eradicate it. Some organisations and NGOs are working hard to solve this problem, but a lot is needed to be done," said Kaur.
Despite laws banning sex determination tests, the killing of female foetuses is still common in India where the preference for sons runs deep. Infanticide is also practised in some areas.
Last December, the government said 10 million girls have been killed by their parents in the past 20 years either before they were born or immediately after.
In the financial and entertainment capital Mumbai, Bollywood actors joined a human chain to campaign against dowry.
According to police records, a woman is murdered every 77 minutes as a result of dowry-related issues.
Legislation banning dowries, a custom that frequently lead to women being abused by husbands and parents-in-law, was passed in 1961, but is still widely flouted.
The role of women has changed since economic reforms began in the 1990s and increasing globalization has opened up the traditional and largely conservative nation to the rest of the world.
"It is a symbol to come together to express solidarity to celebrate success and to commit ourselves anew to the struggle ahead for a gender sensitive society in which equal opportunity is granted to all the citizens irrespective of class, cast gender or race," said Shabana Azmi, Bollywood actress and social activist, addressing a conclave of successful Indian women
in Mumbai.
Despite some of most powerful figures in India's political history being women, such as former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi, who is head of the governing Congress party, India remains largely patriarchal.
A bill to reserve about 30 percent of parliamentary seats for women was introduced a decade ago, but activists say it has not been passed largely due to male opposition to the bill.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 155,553 crimes committed against women in 2005, but women's groups say the real figure could be ten times more as many cases go unreported with victims fearing social stigma.
In West Bengal’s Siliguri town , a panel on disabled persons organised a public hearing on women's issues.
"It's a public hearing which focuses on promoting the rights of women and girls in the region now this has reflections nation wide. We all know what the plight of women is in India and otherwise through out the world, we thought that it was very significant to bring out the stories of women from the rural area of the Siliguri who have been deprived in various areas be it livelihood, be it right to education health," said Mahasweta Biswas, Advisor, North Bengal Council For the Disabled.
In a country where the majority Hindus worship female deities like Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, or Saraswati, the goddess of learning and where the female form is revered as the Universal Mother -- women continue to be abused and disrespected. (ANI)
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